But while the outsourcing issue is a Sheboygan-sized target on
Burke's campaign, Republicans should avoid simply hammering her for the
act of outsourcing itself. It is an easy tactic — and in the end,
winning is all that matters, after all — but campaigns should be careful
how they foment anger among voters. Especially if it means confusing
the public about a nuanced issue that deserves an adult conversation.

First, a point of clarification: While Burke's detractors refer to
"outsourcing," they really mean "offshoring." Companies "outsource"
their operations to other businesses when it isn't cost-effective to do
the work themselves. It's not as if Grimace and Mayor McCheese are at
the McDonald's headquarters milking cows to produce the company's dairy
creamers; they outsource that task to an actual dairy company.

"Offshoring," on the other hand, means moving jobs overseas, where
products can be produced cheaper due to lower labor costs. For the
workers whose jobs are moved to India, China or Mexico, offshoring — to
use a technical economic term — "sucks."

In Bangladesh, there are 4 million garment workers — they’re getting
starved to death too with pitiful wages, and they’re brutally
overworked. And there are no health and safety standards. We saw the
result of that in the Tazreen Factory fire on Nov. 24, 2012, which
killed at least 117 workers. Less than a month later another factory,
Smart Fashion, went up in flames.

When we were in Bangladesh, a boy named Korshed —15 years of age — was
working a night shift, all night long from 7:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. during
the monsoon season. It was July 17, 2012, when in the middle of the
night at 3:00 a.m. a gigantic metal slab fell and crushed this young
kid. Killed, dead on the spot. There’s no health and safety records
whatsoever, the workers are just sitting ducks.

"People who work here have to work 15 hours a day without Saturday,
Sunday break and any holidays. Otherwise, they will suffer torturement,
beat and rude remark. Nearly no payment (10 yuan/1 month)."
Ten yuan is equivalent to $1.61.
"People who work here, suffer punishment 1-3 years averagely, but
without Court Sentence (unlaw punishment). Many of them are Falun Gong
practitioners, who are totally innocent people only because they have
different believe to CCPG. They often suffer more punishment than
others."

Schneider did get that right....$1.61/month is definitely cheaper labor. See what happens when you get rid of the unions, companies are free to prosper! Time for ACT11 to cut teacher pay again.

As a child, Aruna dreamed of going to college. But by the time she was
15, when her government-subsidized schooling ended, she understood that
she was too poor. Then, a stranger promised to change her life. He
offered her a job at a textile factory that has supplied companies
including, until recently, UK-based maternity wear maker Mothercare.
Her pay would be about $105 a month—enough for food for her family, her
further education, and most importantly, the chance to build a dowry.

When Aruna arrived at the factory, about 40 miles from her home, she
found a vast facility where close to 1,000 girls, many in their teens,
lived 10 or 15 to a room. From 8 a.m. till 10 p.m. every day, including
weekends, she fed and monitored rusty machines that spun raw cotton into
yarn. Her bosses often woke her in the middle of the night because, she
recalls, there was "always some sort of work, 24 hours a day." Aruna
made just a quarter of the $105 a month she was promised, about $0.84 a
day.

Aruna shows me a scar on her hand, more than an inch long, where a
machine cut her. She often saw girls faint from standing for too long.
One had her hair ripped out when it got caught in a machine. Others were
molested by their supervisors. "They said we would get less work if we
slept with them," Aruna says. Sometimes girls would disappear, and
everyone would speculate whether they'd died or escaped. Still, she
needed the money, so she worked there for two years.

Last April's building collapse in Bangladesh's Rana Plaza,
which killed more than 1,000, briefly drew attention to the plight of
garment workers. India is an even larger global player than Bangladesh:
It's the third-largest textile and garment exporter
in the world (after China and the European Union), with about $29
billion in 2012 sales. Between June 2012 and June 2013, the United
States imported about $2.2 billion worth of cotton clothing from India,
and that number is expected to grow as India ramps up its textile
industry.

In June, the Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights released a report alleging
that workers producing clothing for Walmart, Target, Macy's, Kohl's and
Hanes at a factory in Jordan have been routinely beaten, underpaid and
forced to work hours in excess of what the local law allows. The report
added that workers have been forced to live in bed bug-infested
dormitories that lack heat and hot water, despite the snow and ice that
are a feature of local winters.
The report also alleged a pattern of widespread sexual abuse of
female employees at the Classic Brands factory complex. The factory
employs some 4,800 people, mostly guest workers from South Asia. One
manager repeatedly raped female Sri Lankan workers, prompting a strike
late last year, according to the report. Workers wanted the manager
fired. Instead, the factory's owner sent the manager on a recruiting
mission to South Asia as a means of temporarily removing him from the
complex. The owner did not publicly discipline the manager or remove the
man from his employment, said Charles Kernaghan, the institute's
director, and the lead author of the study.

Whats a few rapes of 13 year old girls, they aren't in school anyway. When your working a 17 hour shift, 7 days a week, its the only way they get a break.

3 comments:

Teachers who worked hard, furthered their education,got a masters degree, received good evaluations would see a nice salary in 12 years- in that 60-80k range. Now - sadly all of that has changed. New teachers come in at maybe 40k and go nowhere despite all the demands on accountability and increased workloads. There is no merit pay. There are no steps. Now - it will take a teacher nearly 50 years to reach a salary truly reflective of their skills. 60-80k salaries are gone - with 1.5 % salary increases they will barley keep up with inflation. All teachers lost significant pay because of ACT 10. Some teachers lost 6k in their salary. Huge chunks of change that can no longer go to big purchases on a monthly basis. $600 per month lost - sorry WI businesses - blame it squarely on Walker.

I know of a man who works two full-time fast food jobs, 80 hours a week and still depends on food pantries to feed his family. He is one of the able bodied people receiving food stamps who Paul Ryan complains about. Last week his wife went to the Salvation Army to register for Christmas presents for their three young children. This is the American dream? Please Republicans, lecture me one more time about American exceptionalism .